Unless you’re building a new home or have the luxury of being able to add an extension to you home just to facilitate your new home cinema you’re going to have to work with the layout of the room you’ve got when thinking about configuration & location. Windows and doors offer the biggest problems, followed by chimney breasts and fireplaces. Not only can you not place a projector screen or large format TV across a window or door, you need to be able to use them, and can’t put speakers in them either!
Chimneys and fireplaces offer their own inconveniences as a mantle is a great place to hang a regular size flat screen TV, but a large format is too big to hang where they can be seen without straining your neck while hanging a projector screen in front of the fireplace makes it a fire hazard.
And once you’ve found the right location for your TV or screen, where do you put the speakers to get the most out of your surround sound?
In order to get the most out of your home theatre you have to be both flexible, and imaginative. Windows, doors and furniture tell you where things can’t go, so you have to work that little bit harder to find the perfect spot where things can go.
Often placing the picture, be that the TV screen or projector screen is the least of your worries. You’ve got a perfect, UHD display, but now where to put the speakers to get the surround sound to finish off the full theatre experience?
Fortunately many of the leading manufacturers are now making rich, full spectrum speakers smaller than has ever been possible, meaning that they can stand comfortably in narrow spaces, or be fitted in ceilings or walls. Plan your viewing space effectively and you can direct the sound to the prime viewing location to make even the most awkward space sound like you’re alone in an auditorium!
It’s A Short Throw To Get From A Small Room To A Small Home Cinema
And what if you have the space for a projector screen, but there is no way of hanging a projector? Sounds like an odd problem to have, but in modern buildings you may have a wall which would be perfect for use for viewing, but a traditional projector couldn’t be used because the room isn’t deep enough, or would spoil the ethic if it were to be left where it was. The solution to this quandary is the ‘short throw projector,’ projectors which can sit on a coffee table in front of you or even butted up against the wall upon which you’re going to watch your movies or play your games instead of needing to be places several metres behind you. The only drawback to short throw projectors is that any unevenness in the surface of the screen or movement will interfere with the picture far more noticeably than with a projector throwing the picture at a more direct angle.
Short throw projectors have several other advantages over ceiling mounted or otherwise ‘traditional’ projectors too. As a rule of thumb they are incredibly bright, meaning that you can watch movies with them in a light room on a white wall and still enjoy a very reasonable picture quality. Draw the curtains and the picture leaps out in HD. The picture from a traditional projector would often be ruined if people in the room started moving around and casting shadows when they obscured the projection, with short throw you don’t get that, and you only need to move the projector a few inches away from the screen to increase picture size exponentially.
Almost all of the short throw projectors on the market today offer not only HD & super bright picture, they are wireless and have been designed with gamers in mind, to this end you’ll find there is no lag between what you do on your controller and it appearing on the screen in front of you.
Completely Integrate Your Home Cinema With Your Smart Home System
Flat screen TVs & projectors all have the facility to be connected via hotel chromecast to your home’s Smart network and hub making viewing TV from any number of sources a simple operation without the need for a loom of wiring and remote controls too. So if you hear a sound while you’re watching scary movies late at night you can check the perimeter by simply asking Alexa or your Google Home Assistant to show you the CCTV.
When you’re thinking about home cinema installation it’s tempting to just go for the biggest you can fit in the room, biggest screen, biggest speakers, loudest subwoofer… but the reality is that often less is more. If your screen is too big you won’t be able to sit a comfortable distance from it and watch your movies without having to move your head. If the speakers are too big or too loud the overlap in sound means that you’ll actually loose the stereophonic or quadrophonic effect rather than enhance it, meaning that instead of being surrounded by sound you’ll just be sitting in the middle of noise, twitching your head trying to take in all the action.
To install the best home theatre for the size of room which you are going to convert it’s worth calling in the experts. Briant Communications have years of experience planning, specifying and installing home audio visual systems, flat screen TVs and home theatres for thousands of satisfied customers all over south east England. We offer a free, no obligation consultation where we can discuss what you want to achieve and provide estimates based on your preferred outcome. Call us today on 01273 465377 or complete the contact form.